About the Exhibition

Long borders of colorful tropical garden plants such as those Georgia O’Keeffe encountered and painted while in Hawai‘i include ti plant, frangipani, bougainvillea, heliconia, hibiscus, bird-of-paradise, ginger, and many more tropical favorites. Beyond the borders, planting beds arranged around an open-sided thatched-roof pavilion inspired by the traditional Hawaiian hale will tell the story of canoe plants—useful plants brought to the Islands 1,000 years ago by Polynesian settlers.

Outside in the Conservatory Courtyards starting in June, pineapples and bananas, among other favorites, will be on view, along with hundreds of hibiscus, as well as gardenia and bougainvillea. Canoe plants and other edible and useful tropicals such as papaya and sugarcane are featured.

The works in this grouping, not seen together in New York since their 1940 debut, were all created in 1939 and include Heliconia, Crab’s Claw Ginger [plant depicted is actually a “lobster claw” heliconia] and Pineapple Bud (both of which were used in the Hawaiian Pineapple Company’s advertisements and which are held today in private collections); Hibiscus with Plumeria (loaned by the Smithsonian American Art Museum); and a series of landscape paintings depicting Maui’s interior ‘Īao Valley and lava-studded shorelines (loaned by the Honolulu Museum of Art).